Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea
Ellen Moore, a systems consultant, was sent to Korea to manage a project involving a team of three North American and five Korean consultants representing a joint venture between a major Korean conglomerate and a significant North American information technology company. The Americans were to be involved for the first seven months in order to transfer expertise and knowledge to the South Koreans, who had little experience in this area. Andrew Kilpatrick, Ellen's superior, had played an integral part in securing the contract in Korea due to his depth of knowledge on the subject. Andrew chose Ellen Moore to be the key north American project manager because she had significant project management skills and impressive international experience. Upon Ellen's arrival, she discovered that the Korean consultants were far less skilled than she had expected. In addition, Ellen had understood that she and the Korean manager, Jack, were to be co-managers, but tensions immediately arose between them regarding who was given direction to the team and the scope of the project. Tensions escalated until it was clear that the project was behind schedule and the Koreans were not taking direction from Ellen. The Koreans insisted that Ellen was the problem. Andrew strongly disagreed. Andrew and Ellen must decide how to proceed.
Authors :: Henry W. Lane, Chantell E. Nicholls, Gail Ellement
Swot Analysis of "Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea" written by Henry W. Lane, Chantell E. Nicholls, Gail Ellement includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ellen Koreans facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Leading teams, Project management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption,
wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ellen Koreans, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ellen Koreans operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ellen Koreans
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ellen Koreans
Strengths Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ellen Koreans in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Ellen Koreans is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Ellen Koreans is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Ellen Koreans is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ellen Koreans is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Ellen Koreans has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ellen Koreans to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Ellen Koreans is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ellen Koreans has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Ellen Koreans is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Ellen Koreans in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ellen Koreans has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ellen Koreans has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ellen Koreans is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Organizational Resilience of Ellen Koreans
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ellen Koreans does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Ellen Koreans has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Weaknesses Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ellen Koreans is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Ellen Koreans needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ellen Koreans to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ellen Koreans is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea, it seems that the employees of Ellen Koreans don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ellen Koreans needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ellen Koreans has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Ellen Koreans supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ellen Koreans vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ellen Koreans has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Ellen Koreans has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea, is just above the industry average. Ellen Koreans needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ellen Koreans, firm in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ellen Koreans can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ellen Koreans can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ellen Koreans has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ellen Koreans to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Ellen Koreans can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ellen Koreans can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ellen Koreans operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ellen Koreans to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Ellen Koreans to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Ellen Koreans can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ellen Koreans to increase its market reach. Ellen Koreans will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ellen Koreans to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ellen Koreans in the consumer business. Now Ellen Koreans can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ellen Koreans can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ellen Koreans can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ellen Koreans can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ellen Koreans high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Environmental challenges
– Ellen Koreans needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Ellen Koreans can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ellen Koreans demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ellen Koreans has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ellen Koreans needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Ellen Koreans in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Ellen Koreans business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Ellen Koreans.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ellen Koreans with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea, Ellen Koreans may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Ellen Koreans will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ellen Koreans is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Ellen Koreans needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.